The 1.2 billion people living without access to the power grid spend about $27 billion annually on lighting and mobile-phone charging with kerosene, candles, battery torches or other fossil-fuel powered stopgap technologies. Solar-powered portable lights and home kits offer a better service at lower cost. This report takes stock of what the emerging off-grid solar industry has achieved, looks at the opportunities and challenges facing the sector and assesses the potential of off-grid solar to help achieve universal electricity access.

Key findings include:

The off-grid solar sector has seen impressive growth in the past five years.

Pico-solar is becoming mainstream.

Financing is getting larger – but it’s still a bottleneck for further growth.